The first UK vending machines selling mobile phones were unveiled by Vodafone in Manchester earlier this week.

The mobile giant is reported to have put two trial QuickPhone kiosks in its retail branches in Manchester's Market Street and Trafford Centre, where they will be well placed to target the city's student population.

If the trial is successful it could pave the way for future deployments in airports, train stations and motorway service stations.

At the moment, the kiosks offer Sim cards from £5 and a number of different handsets priced at between £30 and £50, which are understood to be pre-pay models.

Similar ideas such as disposable cellphones have been pioneered by companies such as Hop-On in the US, where Apple has been using vending machines to sell iPods.